whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight oer the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs burst continuing in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there o say does that star spangled banner yet wave oer the land of the free

and the home of the brave ♪ [applause] >> thank you. she is a student at the school of arts here in san francisco. hopefully that was her warm up act for "american idol" there. welcome once again, everyone. my name is allen wong. i will be your master of ceremonies. i am delighted to be here. hopefully you watch abc-7 news. i anchor the newscast there. we are here to observe the fifth annual asian american haze damage month.

this year's theme is celebrate heritage, celebrate community. is recognizes the many contributions and diversity of the asian and pacific island communities who r an integral part of this city. 31 years ago, president jimmy carter signed a resolution delivering one week in the month of may declaring asian heritage month. just one week. but that was expanded to the entire month of may in 1990. in 1992, another law was signed proclaiming asian american heritage month to be permanent. in the city and county of san francisco, we are more than one third of the population, we are showing the nation how to properly celebrate this month. please tell all your friends they can view this ceremony on

sfgtv, channel 26 as well as the website. lfert, the celebration committee has been successful in its campaign to raise public awareness. you may have seen on muni posters and on websites. if you happen to have read today he is "san francisco examiner" there was a full page ad on page three. also we have these lovely pins, the a, to celebrate this month. popefully everybody got their pin. anybody not get a pin? i-5 got a couple in my pocket. anybody want one? here you go. there you go. all right. >> at this time we would like to acknowledge the following sponsors. at the gold sponsor level is

pacific gas and electric company. the representative is representing them. >> judy lee, she is the vice president of community affairs. and the life mark group represented by andy bryant. and at the heritage supporters level, we have the catholic care west and wells fargo bank. if you would stand, thank you for being here. this year's major media sponsor is abc-7. maybe that is why i am here. our other partners include sfgtv, asian week, world channel, and am 14 evening news talk. ok, the planning of tonight's

a.p.a. celebration as well as the public awareness c578 pain is the work of -- campaign as well is the work of the mayor's committee. welcome the founder and chair of the a.p.a. heritage celebration committee. here she is to give her remarks. [applause] >> thank yo welcome, and thank you to taking the time to join us as we celebrate and have the official celebration of asian pacific american heritage month. the theme of this year's celebration is celebrate heritage, celebrate community. looking around this room, i know the lights are dim, but many of us in asian pacific american communities may look alike to others. but we all know that the community is truly diverse. according to census

information, this community is made up of over 50 ethnic groups, and many of them have made san francisco their home. there is so much to appreciate in eachest nick culture and so much to celebrate when the community comes together as one, and thus the spirit of our celebration every year. >> the members of this economy think about how do we celebrate community, what came to our mind are all the community centers throughout the city and county of san francisco that has been serving the asian pacific american community. these are places where communities gather for services and programs or just to have fun with each other, have a good time. in other words, these community centers provide a home away from home, and is that why, as part of this celebration, this committee decided to produce a video and invited all asian

american community centers to participate. that is the subject of the short video you saw that was playing when you entered this theater a few moments ago. on behalf of the complee, we think the 10 community centers that accepted our invitation to participate. i want to read out the names because we want to thank them. let's give them a round of [applause] for their community services. [applause] >> and i would like to thank

the general manager of sfgtv who helped us put together this video, and many other projects of this committee. jack is working very hard back stage. let's give jack a round of applause also. [applause] i would like to on behalf of the committee thank all of the volunteers that makes this evening's celebration possible. this celebrate would not happen without the hard work of everyone serving on the committee, and i know that all of you are here this evening, and i just wauven to thank you publicly from the bottom of my heart for all the time and effort, working with each other to put together this celebration. 0% of the committee members started with me on this committee since the first city-wide celebration in 2005, and every year i know we are doing a better job than the year before in coordinating this celebration and promoting awareness of asian pacific

american heritage month. i am not going to read the names, but when you meet them during the reception after the ceremony, they are the ones with the hawaiian laste on. let's give everybody involved also the appreciation. [applause] and last but not least, we really could not have pulled this off, especially with all the posters, tiesments and what not. every year we extend a tone of our appreciation to our top level sponsors. we are glad the gold level sponsor from pg and e is with us. please join us for the presentation. [applause] >> this is a unique piece of art work that was created for

this occasion. [applause] >> thanks,. i'm pleased to be here to accept this beautiful award. celebrating the diversity of the communities we serve is a core value of our company. we are glad to support this event and the series of events that occur throughout the month of may that celebrate our heritage and culture. i would like to thank her for her dedication and efforts every year to create these opportunities to celebrate our culture and heritage. i would like to thank our elected leaders for their leadership and support as well for helping to make these events a reality for san

francisco year after year. thank you again for this recognition, and we look fword to seeing you back here next year. [applause] >> when i'm not anchoring, i report around the bay area. it makes me proud to walk into a city council meeting and see an asian american on the council. there are many of them in the bay area. here in san francisco there are three asian americans on the board of supervisors. i don't think that has ever been done before. [applause] including the first ever president of the board of supervisors, david chiu. he along with supervisor carmen chu and acre mar are here tonight. please come on up.

[applause] >> thank you so much for being here everyone. let me say that the first person that made me feel proud of being asian and pacific american was my second great teacher, mrs. chan. she taught me about being proud, not just being chinese, but also being asian. i will say that people that taught me about being proud of my community were the asian american studies and ethnic studies faculty, several professors from san francisco state. i treasure the less ons they gave me as an -- lessons they gave me. i bring my daughter, jaidon

with me to everything, and her friends, jamie and vincent because i want them to feel proud of their heritage, but not in an arrogant way. it is a way of building unit so we share solidarity with other communities as well. thank you so much to everyone here, the parents, teachers, sponsors, and everyone for putting this on this year. thank you. [applause] >> hi, my name is carmen. i want to thank you for being here tonight. i want to thank everyone for being here, and the numerous commissioners and city leaders. i want to say that on behalf of the board of supervisors, the three of us are very pleased to be here to celebrate with you. i know that oftentimes david and eric talk about being

confused for one another. i am sad to say that i have been confused for one of them, too. it has been a big pleasure for me to work with other colleagues who are also representing the asian american community. more than anything i am prow that -- produced that we represent diverse communities. we have come a long way because of that. we have folks who are very low income, high income, business owners and tenants. our community is so diverse because we have so many different languages, and the more reputation we have, the better. i am pleased to stand here with my colleagues, and thank you very much for beal here. [applause] >> good evening. i want to thank all of you for being a part of such an incredible a.p.a. community. we really represent the oldest asian communities in the country, the largest asian communities in the country and the most significant asian

communities in the country. it is because of all of the work you do in this room that the three of us are here to represent what is wonderful about the diversity of san francisco. i do have to say -- and carmen allude todd this -- that the three of us do know we have come a long way. we do get confused all the time for each other. eric and i look a lot alike, and that is why we get confused. when constituents come to my office that don't know what i look like, i tell them that supervisor chiu is around the corner. we knew we had arrived when there was a newspaper article redskins about eric chu. we had merged do one. on behalf of the san francisco board of supervisors, in recognition to awful your dedication to coordinating our asian communities in this heritage month. , our board of supervisors

extends our highest commendation to all of you. we look forward to working closely with you to move our respective communities forward into the year of the ox and beyond. thank you. >> i'm going to keep you guys up here for a bit. eric mar, by the way, has had the experience of my abc-7 microphone in his face. however, carmen and david have not had that pleasure. i am working on that, by the way. [laughter] by the way, the mayor's office, gavin newscom has given this so much support. unfortunately, he can't be here tonight. but his city administrator, ed lee, is here to present the asian american heritage month proclamation. ed?

>> thank you. i wanted to also express that it is good to see asian faces on the news media because it makes us all comfortable in the bay area for doing a good job. so thank you. on behalf of the mayor i wanted to make an official proclamation along with our board of supervisors for this day. but in doing so, can i see two other officials that have joined me. [applause] they are up here today, but before i do that, i wanted to give a word of advice to david, areaic and carmen. if you want to distinguish yourself, then you can grow a real mustache, and that might be able to distinguish you. [laughter]

anyway, the mayor has been, of course, a big supporter and champion of the asian pacific heritage month. he is unfortunately not with us today. he is on the east coast trying to get us more stimulus money. but he asked us to make this formal presentation. a copy of it is in your program already, so you will know the content. i wanted to express as the city administrator along with my counterparts, our city attorney and public defender that we, too, are very proud of not only working for this city, but also representing our very active asian community, one that is not just local population, it is of international significance. i know our counsel general and our core support the whole asian american community. with that, i want to present the official proclamation of

course to the head of the committee. come on up, claudine. [applause] >> you can read all the things here, but the most important par is that we declare the month of may, 2009, as asian pacific american heritage month. thank you for your great work. [applause] >> very briefly, i think it says volumes when you look at

what the theme is about one community, that we are here celebrating that today. when you think about what president carter established 31 years ago, and then what was expanded beyond that initial week in 1990, it is what san francisco has been living for virtually its entire history. san francisco was built with the help of asian american immigrants, and we continue that tradition now. it is no secret that san francisco is the gateway to the pacific, and some of our earliest sister city relationships were built with a whole variety of cities in asia . and it speaks volume when you look at the bread this -- breadth of reputation that a whole host of countries have in

representation. we have three elected members of the board of supervisors. it speaks volumes about what we are as a city, what we have in terms of values, and the great work that has been done by all of you to make sure that asian american heritage and culture is infused throughout the city and county of san francisco. i can't think you for all the great week all of you have done to keep the tradition alive, and we look forward to working with all of you to celebrate another 31 years in the future of asian american heritage. thanks very much. [applause] >> good evening. i want to echo what our city attorney said. he is an honorary asian american. his son goes to the chinese american school right here in friday. i was just thinking today. not only of the challenges that

we face, but the challenges that our ancestors have faced in the fast. it was only 130 years ago that the san francisco board of supervisors passed a law that outlawed wooden launledriss. it just so happened that all of them were owned by chinese. one landryman was an immigrant and spoke little english, but he decided to challenge that law. he lost before the board of supervisors. he lost in front of the superior court. he lost in front of the court of appeal. he kealed all the way to the california supreme court and lost there. he went to the court of last resort, and that was the united states supreme court. he had the courage, the stamina

and the belief to bring his case all the way to the united states supreme court, and he won. his name was yip wo. pluzz >> if there is any one thing we can learn from his example, it is that we have to stand up for what we believe, and that is what he did. of course we have an elementary school named after him in san francisco, but i think it is people like him that we really owe the legacy and the great accomplishment that we are celebrating today with three members of the board of supervisors and our president. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, jeff. he added a little substance to this day. let's continue on and get to

the good stuff here. let me tell you something about our next performer. he is a 17-year-old senior at sara togethera high school. for -- four years ago he learned how to play the chinese bamboo flute. he mastered the art and skills of playing five other wind instruments. he is a competitive chess player, a math me tigers and a published poet. please welcome him. [applause] ♪

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